Mr. Cameron made his remarks in Parliament today, admitting that he himself has battled to quit smoking.

Replying to a question from Mark Pawsey MP, the Prime Minister said: “I think we do need to be guided by the experts. We should look at the report from Public Health England but it is promising the see that over all, one million people are estimated to have used e-cigarettes to help them quite or have replaced smoking with e-cigarettes completely. So I think we should be making clear that this is a very legitimate path for many people to improve their health and the health of the nation.”

Mr. Cameron’s comments support a growing consensus among public health bodies and advocacy groups including Public Health England, Action on Smoking and Health, Cancer Research UK and others who have concluded that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than tobacco cigarettes and are up to 60% more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapies.

Discussing the Prime Minister’s remarks today, Marc Michelsen, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Communications at Fontem Ventures, said: “Mr. Cameron’s endorsement of e-cigarettes is not only welcome, but much needed. If we want smokers to continue to switch away from tobacco then this type of leadership is required to ensure the potential public health gains offered by e-cigarettes are actually realised.”

“Unfortunately, some other Governments and even the World Health Organisation (WHO) have not yet fully embraced the potential of e-cigarettes in tobacco harm reduction. Consequently, we hope that the UK and other supportive countries take an active position in intergovernmental discussions to ensure the WHO heeds the growing body of science and academia that supports vaping as a very real contributor to international public health goals.”